Joseph Bias Ministries

Accepted In The Beloved

Beloved — The word is not often heard in everyday conversations today. It appears at least 110 times in the Bible, and has profound implications for every believer. It is a word God uses to refer to us, His people. In fact, the whole body of believers is called the beloved.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:3-6

We who are Christ’s are called the Beloved. We are the ones deeply loved and cherished in the heart of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ with The Holy Spirit.

“Beloved” references a deeper dimension of love. It is love in the sense of deeply adored, highly treasured. It is to be precious and dearly held in the highest esteem, regard and admiration.

Think of that. God so loved us. So loved, in a particular and significant way that it led Him to sacrifice His most precious treasure, His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we’ve heard statements like that for years, but allow the enormity of it’s meaning to engage your mind and heart.

You and I are loved and not just loved; we are beloved ones. We are deeply, passionately, extravagantly loved and treasured. And not just that, but we are loved in that way by God, Himself. What that means is He will always desire only the very best of good things for us. When Jesus said He came to bring “life and that more abundantly,” that was a reality born of His love for us, His Beloved.

His love is so deep for us that He doesn’t just want us to have life but He wants us to have it at is fullest, God-created dimension of dynamic richness.

Our part is to receive that love with joy and thanksgiving and then to imitate God in His love by first, worshipping Him with all our heart soul, mind and strength (at the dimension of beloved) in all that we do, say and think, and second, loving the beloved (brothers and sisters in the body of Christ).

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1John 4:11

Then, we are called to love those outside the beloved (the world) as He loves them in being willing to lay down our lives for them so they can know the love of God through our acts of compassion and kindness, our words of comfort and peace and our prayers for them to become new creations in Christ Jesus.

Laying down our lives for others as Jesus did for us is not so much about being willing to “take a bullet” for a sinner, (though some have certainly done that) but rather being willing to and actually taking the time to lay aside our agenda to show kindness and to demonstrate the love of God to those who are lost, compelling them by our love for them to receive salvation in Jesus Christ and be accepted in the Beloved.

Jesus is beloved of the Father. God declared it so.

“And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ ” Matthew 3:17

Through Jesus Christ our Lord we are the Beloved. (see Ephesians 1:3-6 above) We belong to Jesus.

And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:29

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Romans 8:16-17

From our position in Christ of being deeply loved we not only have access to the riches of Heaven we have been declared co-owners of all that the Father has given to the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God loves us as much as He loves Jesus.